jerry thornton

Credit Check: Time to admit that Patriots are in the driver's seat

It’s been said countless times that a football team is a reflection of its coach. And the true genius of your New England Patriots during the reign of Belichick the Conqueror has been the ability to turn lousy opponents into great ones.

Of course, I’m talking about off the field, not on. Between the microphones, not between the hashmarks. Bill Belichick has been bestriding the narrow football world like a colossus for over 10 years now, and I defy you to find one instance in that time when a Patriot player popped off about an opposing team. For me, the only example that comes to mind happened in 2002. Steve Martin (most definitely not of “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” fame) was a former Jet whom the Pats signed as a free agent defensive lineman. In the week leading up to one of the Jets games, Martin opened his mouth to the press about how Kevin Mawae is the dirtiest center in the league. So Belichick spared Martin the pain and suffering and cut his ass days before the game.

Belichick sets the tone. So, what you get from the whole Patriots organization from the Krafts on down to the kid who fills the ketchup bottles at Red Robin is shameless, unabashed gushing about their opponents. No matter how good or bad a team is, the Pats fawn over them on a level only to be found in student newspapers or the YES Network talking about the Yankees.

The Pats have taken the simple act of not giving your opposition bulletin-board fodder and raised it to an art form. Regardless of how bad they are or how lame-ducky their coach is, Patriots players can make a team sound like the alien mother ship from “Independence Day,” settling over Gillette and ready to zap the lighthouse into pebbles.

And that’s great. It’s good sportsmanship. It’s respect. And it’s an admirable trait for a professional organization to possess.

My question is, why do the rest of us need to follow along?

I look around the NFL playoff landscape and I see one clearly, obviously dominant team: the one whose owner has an affinity for blue shirts with white collars. The other 11 are either horribly flawed or stumbled badly at crucial times late in the year. Every single one of them. And no stat sheet or scouting report or ex-coach sitting behind a TV desk is going to make me believe otherwise. Who am I gonna believe? The box scores or my lying eyes?

The Patriots have a sign for the players to see as they leave Gillette and it says:

Which is swell. Again, that’s the Patriots Way. It’s what the coach wants, and the policy of permanently shut pie holes has been the mortar in the foundation of a dynasty around here. But if the Patriots were being truly honest, there’d be another sign at the visitor’s entrance:

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”

Because that’s how it’s been all season. The bridge in the north end zone has been the gates of Dante’s hell for the rest of the NFL, and I refuse to pretend otherwise. Or to live in fear of the other playoff teams when I (and anyone else who spent the whole Christmas season ignoring their loved ones and watching football) have seen the Patriots prove over and over again they’re the dominant power in the universe.

I mean, you wouldn’t know it to listen to the pundits around here. Over the last half-season, while the Patriots went on an unprecedented streak of dominance, the Greek chorus in the Boston media just kept predicting doom. It seemed like every week they played the “best team in football.” Every week they faced “the biggest test of the year.” And all they did was keep acing it.

They beat Baltimore. Won in San Diego. Crushed the Steelers in Pittsburgh. Beat Indy. Slew the Hydra. Humiliated the Jets. Cleaned King Augeas’ stables. Won big in Chicago. Beat Green Bay and killed the three-headed Cerberus.

But every step of the way, the doubters kept doubting. The defense is too porous. There’s no pass rush. They can’t get off the field on third down. All those turnovers will stop sooner or later.

And now that the playoffs are starting, they’re still at it. Even though the Pats have played six of the other 11 playoff teams and beaten them all. Most of them in convincing fashion. The second most popular topic on WEEI over the past two weeks, behind only Rex Ryan’s foot fetish, has been, “Which team are you most worried about in the playoffs?” Hell, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, the hot choice on the Fear List was San Diego, which had the decency to make the point moot by getting eliminated with a week to go in the season.

But honestly, I don’t blame the members of the Boston media one bit. And I mean that sincerely. They’ve been unfair to the Pats on many an occasion, but I don’t happen to think this is one. I’ll grant them that the 2010 Patriots defy conventional wisdom. They’re winning in a way no great team has ever won before. With a record-setting offense but with a defense that gives up huge chunks of yardage but makes game-changing plays when it has to. That’s not a formula anyone’s used to. So, the media naturally assumes someone out there will figure out a way to beat this team. And again, this isn’t “Yankeeography.” This is Boston. The press is being skeptical, but that’s part of being professional.

Well, in case you haven’t figured this out yet, I’m not professional, so I don’t have to be skeptical. I’ve seen enough to know that what we’re witnessing is a team on the way to historic greatness. And don’t give me that 18-1 crap, either. As the 2007 year went on, people slowly began to figure out the Pats. The margin of victory became narrower. They were eking out wins that came ridiculously easy midseason. What we’re seeing now is exactly the opposite. The Patriots figured out their offense before anyone else knew what it was. And too late in the season to do anything about it. Certainly, those six playoff teams they could potentially face didn’t, as the Pats scored 23, 39, 31, 45, 36 and 31 points against them.

If I were a professional, I’d document how every one of those potential opponents … the ones whose approach is supposed to make us tremble in fear … has stumbled badly at some point late in the season. But here are a few examples:

• Pittsburgh not only lost to the Jets in December, in late November the Steelers squeaked out the luckiest win in the NFL this year when Buffalo dropped a game winning pass in the end zone in overtime.
• Green Bay played a Bears team resting up for the bye week and put up 10 points at home.
• Baltimore barely hung on to win on the last play against a hapless Cincinnati team in Week 17.
• Kansas City lost to Oakland by three touchdowns in the last week and has only beaten one playoff team all season: 7-9 Seattle.

All of that makes my case but misses the larger point. As fans, why would any of us, witnessing the rise of the 2010-11 Patriots, want to worry about who matches up well against them or who might beat them? What kind of a way is that to approach the playoffs with them in the midst of this insane, miraculous, unexpected roll?

That works for the coach. The players play along. It’s fine for the media. I’m going with what I see, and it’s a team without equal. The Patriots are walking into the playoffs like Dalton walking into the Double Deuce. Not underestimating their opponents and always expecting the unexpected. But the rest of us in the bar recognize that they’re the best coolers in the business.

Worry about who they might face in the playoffs? I’d rather ask: Which team isn’t terrified of facing them?

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